Lumpiang Shanghai

My youngest daughter, Cherlin asked for lumpia yesterday. After making sure that I still have lumpia wrappers in the freezer, I promised her that we’ll have lumpia for dinner. After picking up my eldest daughter from school, I started preparing it. Since Lumpiang Shanghai is the lumpia variety that I frequently cook, I thought that it's what Cherlin wanted. I was almost done wrapping when she asked me why I’m doing the small ones. She said she wanted the bigger kind of lumpia, like the ones we had last Saturday at a friend’s birthday party. So I realized she was asking for Vietnamese egg rolls. I explained to her that I haven’t cooked that kind of egg roll so I still have to find the recipe. Good that she understood mommy! We all enjoyed Filipino egg rolls for dinner with matching crab and corn soup. But she made me promise that I’ll cook Vietnamese egg rolls today. In times like this, I’m really glad that there’s the internet where I can search for anything in a matter of minutes.

So today, I’m sharing with you the recipe for Lumpiang Shanghai that I did last night, and tomorrow, the recipe for Vietnamese egg rolls that I’ll be doing later.

Lumpia is the Filipino version of egg/spring rolls. There are a lot of lumpia variations in the Philippines and Lumpiang Shanghai is one of them. Lumpiang Shanghai has pork as its main ingredient. Other variations are Lumpiang Sariwa(the Filipino version of spring roll which contains lettuce and peanuts as well as other vegetables and meat), Lumpiang Ubod (it has the same ingredients as lumpia sariwa but differs in the addition of coconut shoots), Lumpiang Hubad (unwrapped Lumpiang Sariwa) and Lumpiang Basah("wet spring roll" which means spring roll without frying. It is similar to the Vietnamese spring roll with bean sprouts, carrots, shrimp and/or chicken, and served with sweet tauco sauce).

Lumpiang Shanghai is another party favorite and such a great appetizer. It is typically stuffed with pork, shrimp, and vegetables. Most of the ingredients to make Lumpiang Shanghai fillings are easy to find, but the Filipino lumpia wrappers can be difficult to find here in Texas so I’m using Chinese spring roll wrappers that can be bought in Asian Stores.

3.Add the ground pork and sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp blackpepper. Stir-fry until no more pink color is showing.

4.Add carrots, oyster sauce and fish sauce. Mix well.

5.Add shrimps and cook until pink then add egg. Mix well and remove from heat. Allow to completely cool down. Drain if necessary. Set aside the sauce.

6.The lumpia wrappers are very tightly packed, so be careful when pulling them apart. Spoon 1 Tbsp mixture on the lower edge of the wrapper leaving 1 inch edge. Begin to fold egg roll like an envelope: first, fold over the lower 1 inch edge over the filing, then the left edge, then the right edge, then roll up to the top edge. To seal the wrapper just moisten the top edge with water. I used the sauce I got from draining the cooked mixture.

7.Heat vegetable oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium high heat. Place egg roll one at a time into hot oil, with the seam down (this will keep it from unraveling) and then quickly turn the egg roll to ensure the skin crisp up and does not stick to other egg rolls in the pan. Adjust heat so that the oil is bubbling gently and not too vigorously around the egg rolls. Each egg roll will take about 5 minutes to cook. Shake the egg roll over the pan to help remove the excess oil. Place egg roll on layers of paper towels to drain.

8.Serve the egg rolls with your favorite sweet and sour sauce or a spicy vinegar sauce.

Note: You can prepare Lumpiang Shanghai ahead of time. Just put them in freezer bags and freeze until ready for cooking.

Hi Sam! They should stay crispy longer if you drain them well on paper towels after frying. What I do is I put paper towels on a big bowl and I drain the egg rolls there (in vertical position) until they completely cool down, then I arrange them in a dish or aluminum pan (again in vertical position instead of stacking them in layers.

Hi Tina, I used this recipe for the lumpiang shanghai i sent today for my son's school- for the teacher and staff appreciation week. I received an email from his teacher that everybody loved it. Credit to you. Thank you so much for this recipe. :)